Year C: Music for Christ the King / Reign of Christ Sunday, November 20, 2022

OPENING VOLUNTARY Chorale Chaconne on "Mit Freuden zart"

James Biery

See the text and tune at ELW 727

Lord Christ, When First You Came to Earth is one option for the Hymn of the Day. At first glance, today's gospel reading from Luke might seem like an odd choice. We proclaim Christ as King, yet the gospel reading recounts the scene of the crucifixion in a way that seem to be nothing more than an utter failure. Yet, with some of the last words Jesus will speak, this is the time he says to the criminal, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise." (NRSV)

A chaconne is built on a repeating pattern of notes in the bass line - usually played on the organ's pedalboard. Biery places lush chords over this pattern, only hinting at the tune before its bold entrance.

GATHERING HYMN Lord Christ, When First You Came to Earth 

(Mit Freuden zart) ELW 727

HYMN OF THE DAY Beautiful Savior (Schönster Herr Jesu) ELW 838

F. Melius Christiansen
1871 - 1955

The first stanza of this favorite hymn of Lutherans announces Jesus as the King of Creation. The two verses that follow give beautiful images of the world we see around us - springtime flowers, night time moonlight with sparkling stars - and they remind us that we will never see anything in creation that is more beautiful than Jesus who shines purer and brighter than all of it.

F. Melius Christiansen's arrangement has long been a signature piece of the St. Olaf Choir. Listen to a recording at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n9vfVEcS78 
Be warned - it's a tear jerker!

MUSICAL OFFERING And Christ Shall Be Our Peace K. Lee Scott

COMMUNION HYMN My Song Is Love Unknown (Rhosymedre)
ELW pairs this text with John Ireland's tune, Love Unknown. Today we follow the lead of ELW's predecessor, Lutheran Book of Worship, and sing it with Rhosymedre, a tune by a Welsh Anglican priest named John David Edwards (1805 - 1885). 

SENDING HYMN Lift High the Cross (Crucifer) ELW 660

CLOSING VOLUNTARY Fanfare on "Helmsley" Karl Osterland

A stained glass window in Tipperary, Ireland
portrays Christ the King.

This Charles Wesley text is found in the "End Times" section of ELW. It uses vivid imagery to describe Jesus' return. The text and tune can be found at ELW 435. I usually choose the LBW version of this hymn because it includes my favorite stanza:

Every eye shall now behold him

Robed in glorious majesty;

Those who set at nought and sold him,

Pierced and nailed him to the tree,

Deeply wailing, deeply wailing, deeply wailing,

Shall the true Messiah see.

This stanza can be understood to say those who wail do so because they face certain punishment. I prefer to believe their wailing comes from a deep grieving at having met love with evil and indifference.

However it's interpreted, the final stanza of the hymn calls to mind Philippians 2:10-11.

". . so that at the name of Jesus

every knee should bend,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue should confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord

to the glory of God the Father."

It seems a fitting place to end our worship on Christ the King /Reign of Christ Sunday as we close another liturgical year.

Peace be with you.

sources: They Hymnal Companion, Evangelical Lutheran Worship
Wikipedia
Hymnary.org

stained glass window By Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15372564By Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15372564